Cass Morrison

I'd be delighted to sponsor a NASA Postdoc Fellowship focused on #biosignatures, #astrobiology, or the Origin of Life here at Hopkins! 🚀

Could T. rex swim? Kinda Evidence suggests dinosaurs like tyrannosaurs were probably best suited to a version of the doggy paddle.

Could T. rex swim? Kinda
Evidence suggests dinosaurs like tyrannosaurs were probably best suited to a version of the doggy paddle
With Cassius Morrison (@cretaceous-cass.bsky.social)
www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...

www.researchgate.net/journal/Roya...

Honored for my first article to be featured on Editor's pick

YouTube video by CNN 10 How the T. Rex walked from Asia to North America | May 8, 2025

youtu.be/FRhIhF4X1f0?...

At 4 minute and 10 seconds you might recognise a certain study 😀 🦖🦖🦖

T. rex’s direct ancestor crossed from Asia to North America Tyrannosaurus rex evolved in North America, but its direct ancestor came from Asia, crossing a land bridge connecting the continents more than 70 million years ago, according to a new study led by UCL...

www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

And is firmly in 'Camp Tyrannosauroidea' for megaraptorans, finding them to be early-diverging within the clade (as per Aranciaga Rolando et al. 2022), not 'mid-grade' as per my 2022 work. It also supports Laurasian (maybe Asian) origins followed by Gondwanan dispersal... 5/n

Colour Cretaceous palaeoart scene, showing trees, sauropods, a megaraptoran at left, tyrannosaurid at right, and various other dinosaurs too.

Lots to think about, making this such an exciting group for hypotheses about theropod evolution in general. The paper is accompanied by this exciting piece of art, credit to Pedro Salas/Sergey Krasovskiy. 6/end #dinosaurs #theropods

Thank you and I am very impressed by your thread, we were discussing it last night :)

Rise of the king: Gondwanan origins and evolution of megaraptoran dinosaurs | Royal Society Open Science Late Cretaceous Earth was dominated by theropods such as tyrannosauroids and megaraptorans; however, it is unclear how these clades diversified and grew to massive proportions. This study aimed to conduct a biogeographical analysis and test climate as a ...

Today sees the publication of an exciting new study on megaraptoran evolution by Morrison et al. @cretaceous-cass.bsky.social in R Soc Open Sci that seeks to clarify patterns and biogeography. It's OA and here .... royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... 4/n #dinosaurs #theropods

Rise of the king: Gondwanan origins and evolution of megaraptoran dinosaurs | Royal Society Open Science Late Cretaceous Earth was dominated by theropods such as tyrannosauroids and megaraptorans; however, it is unclear how these clades diversified and grew to massive proportions. This study aimed to con...

C. Morrison et al. (2025)
Rise of the king: Gondwanan origins and evolution of megaraptoran dinosaurs
Royal Society Open Science 12(5): 242238
doi: doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

T. rex’s direct ancestor crossed from Asia to North America Tyrannosaurus rex evolved in North America, but its direct ancestor came from Asia, crossing a land bridge connecting the continents more than 70 million years ago, according to a new study led by UCL...

Tyrannosaurus rex evolved in North America, but its direct ancestor came from Asia, crossing a land bridge connecting the continents more than 70 million years ago, finds a new study by an international team led by PhD researcher @cretaceous-cass.bsky.social @es-ucl.bsky.social @uclmaps.bsky.social

Venue — DinoCon

Reminder for those attending #DinoCon 2025 (University of Exeter, August 16th-17th): our accommodation of choice is the university's Holland Hall. Don't leave booking to too late! There's an FAQ at our website: www.dinocon.co.uk/venue and be sure to follow @dinoconuk.bsky.social for news :)

CAPTION The piece illustrates the disparity of the Northern and Southern hemisphere’s evolution of terrestrial Cretaceous faunas after the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum. On the left, End Cretaceous Southern Hemisphere (Western Gondwana) became dominated by Megaraptorids theropods and titanosaur sauropods. The centre of the piece summarises the extinction event of terrestrial fauna at the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum, where the apex predators the carcharodontosaurids allosaurs went extinct and tyrannosauroids (including megaraptoran and the ancestors of Tyrannosaurus rex) were small. On the right, the end Cretaceous Northern Hemisphere fauna dominated by Tyrannosaurids (such as Tyrannosaurus rex), hadrosaurs and ceratopsian ornithischian dinosaurs. The environment also became more mesic represented by the landscape compared to the more semi-arid seasonal environment earlier in the Cretaceous. CREDIT Pedro Salas and Sergey Krasovskiy

"Tyrannosaurus rex evolved in North America, but its direct ancestor came from Asia, crossing a land bridge connecting the continents more than 70 million years ago, according to a new study led by UCL researchers." 🦖
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

(Art: Pedro Salas, Sergey Krasovskiy)

I am very pleased to announce that my first scientific paper & first author paper, has just been published !

Rise of the King: Gondwanan Origins and Evolution of Megaraptoran Dinosaurs

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Macroevolutionary trajectories of the Hemiptera.

"Two major faunal turnovers particularly influenced Hemiptera diversification: (i) the aftermath of the Permo-Triassic mass extinction and (ii) the Angiosperm Terrestrial Revolution."
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
🧪 #Paleobio ⚒️ #Geology #EvoBio

Thank you, I think I definitely will

I bought this on audible and can't wait to listen

Life reconstruction of Threordatoth chasmatos

🦎Threordatoth chasmatos🦎 a new Late Triassic procolophonid in Papers in Palaeontology with @richardjbutler.bsky.social @marcehjones.bsky.social and Nick Fraser showing unique features of the jaw and teeth 🦷🦷https://doi.org/10.1002/spp2.1605 Reconstruction by @markwitton.bsky.social 1/4 #fossilfriday

Theropod dinosaur diversity of the lower English Wealden: analysis of a tooth‐based fauna from the Wadhurst Clay Formation (Lower Cretaceous: Valanginian) via phylogenetic, discriminant and machine learning methods The Lower Cretaceous Wealden Supergroup of southern England yields a diverse assemblage of theropod dinosaurs, its taxa being represented by fragments in addition to some of the most informative asso...

Barker 2024 Theropod dinosaur diversity of the lower English Wealden: analysis of a tooth‐based fauna from the Wadhurst Clay Formation (Lower Cretaceous: Valanginian) via phylogenetic, discriminant and machine learning methods. Papers in Palaeontology
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

📢There's still time to nominate for the Marsh #Palaeoart Award! It recognises talent in depicting the extinct fossil faunas of the British Isles. This year's guest judge is the amazing @bobnichollsart.bsky.social
Closing date 25th Nov. Full details: palaeosoc.org/grants-prize... #paleoart

Here we are on BlueSky! 🙂
We've been around for over 170 years, our monographs incl. Charles #Darwin's fossil #barnacles, & Richard Owen's early descriptions of #dinosaurs. We also support research & outreach. Follow us for #fossils, funding opportunities, & posts from the palaeontology community.

An upcoming conference talk, I will be presenting in December 2024!!!!